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Introduction
The Poco X3 NFC is here, and for the first time since the original Pocophone, the X3 NFC is not based on any previously available Xiaomi smartphone. The Poco division has finally come up with an original smartphone complete with a unique design and handpicked feature set.
The Poco X3 NFC is an obvious successor to the Poco X2, which was a rebranded Redmi K30. It has a 6.67" IPS LCD with a 120Hz refresh rate, just like the X2, but has a much smaller punch hole by dropping the unnecessary 2MP selfie depth sensor. The X3 employs an updated version of the X2 Snapdragon 730G chipset - the X3 runs on the newer Snapdragon 732G with a more powerful processor and graphics.
The Poco X3 has a promising quad-camera on the back that's very similar to the X2's - a 64MP primary, a 13MP ultrawide, a 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth shooter. The Poco X2 had the same quartet, but the ultrawide shooter used an 8MP sensor instead of 13MP.
So, in addition to the smaller notch, newer chip and better ultrawide snapper over the X2, the X3 also brings stereo speakers, a larger 5,160mAh battery, and faster charging capabilities. Oh, and NFC, too, if the name hasn't spoiled that for you.
The Poco X3 NFC is shaping up like an excellent mid-ranger, but we've left its standout detail for last - the bargain price. Poco X3 NFC is officially priced at €229, which makes it hard to resist.
Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC specs
- Body: Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front, plastic back, 165.3 x 76.8 x 9.4 mm, 208g.
- Display: 6.67" IPS LCD, 120Hz, HDR10, 1080 x 2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 395ppi.
- Rear camera: Primary: 64MP, f/1.9 aperture, 0.8µm pixel size, PDAF. Ultrawide: 13MP, f/2.2, 1.0µm pixels. Macro camera: 2MP, f/2.4. Depth sensor: 2MP; Video recording: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps.
- Front camera: 20MP, f/2.2 aperture, 0.8µm pixels. 1080p/30fps video recording.
- OS: Android 10; MIUI 11.
- Chipset: Snapdragon 730G (8nm): Octa-core (2x2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver), Adreno 618 GPU.
- Memory: 6GB of RAM; 64/128GB UFS 2.1 storage; shared microSD slot.
- Battery: 5,160mAh; 33W fast charging.
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM; LTE-A; USB-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; dual-band GPS; Bluetooth 5.1; FM radio; NFC; IR blaster.
- Misc: Side-mounted fingerprint reader; stereo speakers; 3.5mm audio jack.
The Poco X3 NFC is IP53-certified for dust and splash protection. You also find some other fan-favorite features such as an IR blaster, 3.5mm jack, microSD slot, FM radio, among others. And finally, the X3 ships with the latest MIUI12 based on Android 10, and it's already shaping as one of the better UIs this year.
Well, the Poco X3 NFC certainly sounds promising on paper. Let's find out if that's true.
Unboxing the Poco X3 NFC
The Poco X3 NFC is packed with a rather thick paper box that contains everything you may ever need with this phone but headphones. The bundle offers a 33W power brick, a 3A-rated USB-C cable, and a see-through (antibacterial) case.
That's not all. Inside the box, you will also find a lot of Poco stickers for your car, notebooks, laptops, etc. Some paperwork and the SIM-ejection pin complete the retail box contents.
Design, build, handling
Well, Poco finally did it! It's made a phone that isn't just a rebranded Redmi but one that has its unique design and carefully selected feature. This was a much-needed step that marks Poco's coming of age.
So, the Poco X3 NFC has a unique rear panel - it's made of polycarbonate with multiple layers textures and paint. You can see the result of this process - a metallic texture with the POCO logo and a cool hue that reflects light in different ways depending on your surroundings. The peculiar camera setup does help create a recognizable identity for the phone.
Other than the striped texture and the X-camera arrangement on that curvy setup, the rest is pretty much your typical sandwich smartphone through and through. The front panel is a flat piece of Gorilla Glass 5, then comes the glossy aluminum frame, and finally - the plastic back we've shown already.
Just like the X2, the X3 has a 6.67" IPS LCD 1080p+ screen at the front with a 120Hz refresh rate. This time the notch is much smaller, though. Poco has ditched the front 2MP depth sensor, and the 20MP selfie shooter has been centered at the top within a tiny punch hole.
The earpiece, which also doubles as a speaker, is not on the glass but carved out in the frame. A white status LED is hidden behind the speaker's grille, too.
The display's bezels are more than acceptable and while not the thinnest on the market, we did not find them too thick either.
The back, as we mentioned already, is made of polycarbonate and is curved a little bit towards the sides. It contains the 4-camera setup, which protrudes a lot. But because the camera island is not only thick but long as well, the Poco X3 NFC won't wobble as many of the Redmi phones we've tested recently.
The camera setup has 5 holes arranged in X fashion. The upper row has the LED flash and the primary camera, the ultrawide snapper is in the middle, and the bottom row has the macro shooter and the depth sensor.
There is a lot going on around the frame. On the left, you will see the volume keys and the power button. The surface on the latter doubles as the fingerprint sensor - always-on and blazing-fast as usual.
The top has the IR blaster and a mic.
The left side has the lonely hybrid-SIM slot.
The bottom part of the X3 houses the audio jack, the USB-C port, the mouthpiece, and the second speaker.
The Poco X3 NFC measures 165.3 x 76.8 x 9.4 mm and weighs 215 grams - this means it is 0.6mm thicker and 7g heavier than the X2. The new X3 NFC has a noticeably larger battery, and NFC (duh), so we can't be angry at the newly gained weight and thickness.
The Poco X3 NFC is IP53-certified for normal dust protection and resistance to light splashes. If not for anything else, this should give you some extra peace of mind.
Handling the X3 NFC is a pleasant experience - it's a solid phone that fits well in your palm. It is not bulky, but it's not a slim or lightweight phone either. The frame is wide enough for a secure grip even if glossy and we didn't feel the need to use the bundled case. But, hey, it's there so we appreciate it.
The phone also came with one very slim and cheap screen protector, but we peeled it off right away. It was a massive smudge magnet, and its hole did not exactly align with the selfie punch hole (triggering an OCD we didn't know we had).
Display
The Poco X3 NFC employs a 6.67" IPS LCD screen with a small punch hole for the selfie camera. The display is protected by a flat Gorilla Glass 5 piece. The maker ships the phone with a thin screen protector, but its quality was below average, and we took it off.
The screen resolution is 1,080 x 2,400 pixels, which makes for a 20:9 aspect ratio and sharp pixel density of 395ppi.
The X3 screen supports HDR10, and the phone's software features the highest Widevine L1 DRM support. This means you will be able to stream high-def HDR10 content from all popular streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube.
The Poco X3 screen panel supports 120Hz refresh rate and can display up to 120fps. The 120Hz option works dynamically as usual - it is always showing MIUI 12 and its default apps at 120fps, but it reverts to 60Hz when the picture is static. You can't spot this switch with your bare eyes and that's good - the phone saves battery whenever possible and but you can't really tell it.
The touch sensors are working with a super-sensitive 240Hz sampling rate, which should be appreciated by gamers mostly.
The display maxes out at 460 nits of brightness when adjusted manually - in line with what Xiaomi promised. When set to the Auto setting and faced with bright light, it will go as high as 631 nits.
The blacks are deep enough even if not the blackest we've seen, and the contrast turned out very good at about 1300:1.
The minimum brightness we measured was just 2.7 nits.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.354 | 460 | 1299:1 | |
| 0.515 | 631 | 1225:1 | |
| 0.399 | 550 | 1378:1 | |
| 0.527 | 714 | 1355:1 | |
| 0 | 516 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 854 | ∞ | |
| 0.314 | 461 | 1468:1 | |
| 0.355 | 456 | 1285:1 | |
| 0.487 | 616 | 1265:1 | |
| 0 | 449 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 646 | ∞ | |
| 0.343 | 451 | 1315:1 | |
| 0.318 | 421 | 1324:1 | |
| 0.332 | 437 | 1316:1 | |
| 0.347 | 460 | 1326:1 | |
| 0.486 | 640 | 1317:1 | |
Before we go through our display measurements, we need to talk about ghosting. It appears that the pixel response time on this screen is not that good - there is visible ghosting when scrolling text or images in the high-refresh-rate mode. If you've handled a flagship phone with 120Hz refresh rate - you will spot the difference in scrolling immediately. The UI appears smooth and responsive, but scrolling text or similar black content causes smearing (or ghosting as it's known). It's just a visual deficiency and it may bother some people more than others but it's there.
Xiaomi offers three different Color presets - Auto, Saturated, and Standard - each one representing a specific color space.
The Auto option fully covers the DCI-P3 color space, but it also adjusts the colors to correspond to your current lighting (like Apple's True Tone). In normal daylight conditions in our office, we measured an average deltaE of 6.9 against DCI-P3 targets. It can get a bit more or less accurate depending on the type of ambient light. The whites and grays will always have a noticeable blue tinge though unless you tweak the color temperature manually.
The Standard setting corresponds to sRGB, and we recorded an average deltaE of 3.3 for the color accuracy, meaning it is a pretty good one.
Finally, the Saturated makes the colors pop, and they are no longer as accurate to DCI-P3.
Battery life
The Poco X3 NFC is powered by a large 5,160 mAh battery, and 33W fast charging is supported.
The Poco X3 NFC completed our battery life test with flying colors. It can last 33 hours on a call, 17+ hours browsing online or 14+ hours on video playback. The X3 also performed brilliantly when in standby mode and everything came together for an outstanding endurance score of 125 hours.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Poco X3 NFC for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Charging speed
The Poco X3 NFC ships with a 33W adapter and a proper 3A-rated USB-C cable. Xiaomi's official statement says the 33W charger should be refilling 62% in 30 mins and 100% in 65 mins.
We put that to the test, of course, and we got slightly different results - 55% in 30 mins and 100% in 75 mins. That's plenty fast, too, even if it took 10 mins longer than promised.
As you can see the charging speed is in line with recent Mi and Redmi phones and also a match for the Nord's Warp Charge.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
63% - OnePlus Nord
60% - Xiaomi Redmi K30
56% - Poco X3 NFC
55% - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
55% - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
53% - Xiaomi Mi 9T
45% - Xiaomi Redmi 9 (18W)
33%
The X3's battery is pretty large with 5,160mAh capacity and being able to recharge it for an hour or so is fantastic.
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- OnePlus Nord
1:05h - Xiaomi Redmi K30
1:09h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
1:11h - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
1:14h - Poco X3 NFC
1:15h - Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
1:16h - Xiaomi Mi 9T
1:40h
Stereo speakers
The Poco X3 NFC has a hybrid stereo speaker setup - the earpiece acts as one, and there is another one at the bottom of the phone.
The Poco X3 NFC offers Very Good loudness. The earpiece provides good enough bass and high tones, but it seems to be lacking big time in mid-tones, unfortunately.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Android 10 and MIUI 12
The Poco X3 NFC is the second smartphone we meet that boots MIUI 12 out of the box. The new launcher is based on Android 10 and introduces a refined interface with new animations, new privacy options, floating windows, dedicated Control Center, Super Wallpapers, and a brand-new app drawer, among other features.
The version on the Poco X3 NFC seems to be lacking the cool Super Wallpapers we saw on other Xiaomi phones with MIUI12. Always-on display is not supported, too, but that's to be expected as the X3 packs an LCD screen.
Overall, MIUI 12 is not a massive overhaul over MIUI 11, but more of a refresh with new looks here and there, new cooler animations optimized for high-refresh-rate screens, and a couple of new features though it's up to you whether you'll use them or not.
You unlock the screen via the blazing-fast side-mounted fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up, fast, and superbly accurate - it is on par with the best in business. 2D Face Unlock is available, too, but it is far less secure than the fingerprint option.
Security options
The homescreens are business as usual - they are populated with shortcuts, folders, and widgets. The leftmost pane, if enabled, is called Google Feed.
Homescreens
MIUI 12 offers an app drawer by default, and it automatically organizes your apps into categories. The first is All, meaning it contains all apps. Then follow Communication, Entertainment, Photography, Tools, New, and Business. You can edit these categories or even disable them altogether. You can't disable the App Drawer, at least not in this MIUI 12 for Poco iteration.
App drawer
Another new feature is the Notification shade split into Notification Center and Control Center. Indeed, this is precisely what the iPhones do, and you even summon them in the same fashion - pull down from the left part of the screen for the Notification Center, pull down from the right for the Control Center.
If you are not fond of this new split - you can disable the Control Center, and the shade will revert to its MIUI 11 looks and operation.
Notification Center • Control Center • Control Center • The old Notification Shade
The task switcher has not changed much. It shows all of your recent apps in two columns. Tap and hold on a card for the split-screen/floating shortcut, or just swipe it left or right to close it. There is a new Floating Windows button next to the Split Screen, which is a new option offered by MIUI 12. You can put some apps in a floating state above everything else. You can only have one floating window at a time, though.
Task Switcher • Floating Windows • Floating app • Split screen
Themes are a huge part of MIUI, and they are available on MIUI 12, too. You can download new ones from the Themes store, and they can change wallpapers, ringtones, system icons, system fonts, and even the always-on display style.
Themes
Xiaomi enhanced MIUI 12 with a couple of additional privacy options. Now when sharing stuff, like photos and videos, you can opt to remove location and/or other metadata (incl. device info) and thus protect your privacy fully. Neat.
Gallery • Privacy Settings
MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps and allows you to define the battery behavior of selected apps and applies restrictions only to the apps you choose.
MIUI 12 packs proprietary apps for Gallery, Music, and Video player. In some regions, the music and video apps include paid streaming options. Mi Remote for the IR blaster is available, too. In China, a new Mi AI assistant is part of MIUI 12, replacing the Google Assistant.
MIUI 12 also enhances the Notes app with even more Task checklists and subtask options.
FM radio app is available, too.
Security • Security • Music • Video • Mi Remote • FM radio
MIUI 12 supports Dark Mode, too, and you can even force it on wallpapers or restrict its application on incompatible individual apps.
Dark Mode
MIUI 12 is fully optimized to work on HRR displays. Everything is smooth and fast; animations are unobtrusive yet impressive, the attention to the detail is simply excellent.
Performance and benchmarks
The Poco X3 NFC is powered by the Snapdragon 732G chip, or as Poco likes to call it - "the most powerful Snapdragon 700 series 4G processor to date". Well, it's not wrong even if it isn't something we would brag about.
Hardware-wise, the Snapdragon 732G is a cloe relative to the vanilla S730 and the S730G we saw on the Poco X2.
The octa-core processor is the same, but the clocks of the two powerful cores have been increased with 100MHz. So, the octa-core processor now has two Kryo 470 Gold (Cortex-A76) cores clocked at 2.3 GHz, and six Kryo 470 Silver (Cortex-A55) ones, working at 1.8 GHz. They are all built on an 8nm LPP node.
All three S73x chips have the same Adreno 618 DSP. The one on the 730G is clocked 75 MHz higher than S730 and sits at 575 MHz. And now, the one inside the Poco X3 can go as high as 800MHz.
Finally, no matter whether you get the 64GB or the 128GM model, the Poco X3 NFC will always ship with 6GB RAM.
The benchmarks we ran clearly show the Poco X3 is among the most powerful smartphones in the mid-range segment right now. Its processor is only bested by the slightly more powerful Snapdragon 765's.
GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
1927 - Poco X3 NFC
1777 - Realme 6
1726 - Xiaomi Mi 9T
1703 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
1694 - Xiaomi Redmi K30 (Poco X2)
1692 - Realme 6 Pro
1666 - Realme 7
1651
GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
616 - Poco X3 NFC
568 - Realme 6 Pro
565 - Xiaomi Redmi K30 (Poco X2)
548 - Realme 6
548 - Xiaomi Mi 9T
542 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
521 - Realme 7
516
Same goes for the overlocked Adreno 618 GPU. While it is not a groundbreaking difference, it does well enough to go on top of most of the mid-range phones we've tested so far.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
32 - Realme 7
28 - Poco X3 NFC
27 - Xiaomi Redmi K30 (Poco X2)
27 - Realme 6 Pro
27 - Realme 6
27 - Realme 6S
27 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
26 - Xiaomi Mi 9T
24
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
17 - Realme 7
17 - Poco X3 NFC
16 - Realme 6 Pro
16 - Realme 6
16 - Realme 6S
16 - Xiaomi Redmi K30 (Poco X2)
15 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
15 - Xiaomi Mi 9T
13
Finally, AnTuTu 8 test shows the phone is on par with its competitors and will not disappoint anyone.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
318117 - Realme 7
292828 - Realme 6
288931 - Poco X3 NFC
283750 - Realme 6S
278982 - Xiaomi Redmi K30 (Poco X2)
272229 - Realme 6 Pro
268785 - Xiaomi Mi 9T
257146 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
253271
It's obvious the Poco X3 NFC is an excellent performer in its class. It will easily manage whatever you throw at it. Only few games are currently optimized for HRR displays and even fewer will be able to run at 60fps on higher on the Poco X3 as it is no flagship. But the support is there, and the smooth OS and apps are quite enough to justify putting an HRR screen in the first place.
The Poco X3 NFC uses dual-cooling system with heatpipe and multi-layer graphite sandwich - below the screen and below the rear panel. It is quite efficient and keeps the phone cool even after long benchmarking sessions.
Long story short - the Poco X3 NFC is a powerful smartphone, among the best in its price bracket.
A quad-camera on the back
The Poco X3 NFC features a quad-camera on its back that has been quite common across the Xiaomi's Redmi series. It has a 64MP primary snapper, a 13MP ultrawide shooter, followed by a 2MP macro cam and a 2MP depth sensor.
The Poco X3 NFC packs a 64MP primary camera with Sony IMX 682 Quad-Bayer sensor with f/1.9 lens, 0.8µm pixels, and PDAF. This is the only camera that supports Night Mode.
Second is a 13MP snapper with 13mm f/2.2 lens and 1.0µm pixels.
The macro camera is 2MP with f/2.4 aperture, 1.75µm pixels, but lacks autofocus. Finally, there is a 2MP depth sensor.
The selfie camera has a 20MP sensor behind an f/2.2 lens. The focus is fixed.
The default camera app is a typical MIUI affair - switching between modes is done by swiping left and right, and all available modes but Macro are on this rolodex. The zoom shortcut on the viewfinder switches between ultrawide, regular 1x, and 2x zoom (digital).
On the opposite end of the viewfinder, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, an AI toggle, Google Lens, and a magic wand with beauty effects and filters. Behind a hamburger menu, you'll find some more options, including the Macro mode, plus the shortcut to the settings. What you won't find is an option to set the output resolution for any of the cameras.
The Pro mode works with the normal camera, the ultra-wide, and the macro. Manual 64MP pictures are also an option. For the main camera, you can use up to 30s shutter speed and ISO up to 6400. For the ultrawide, the slowest shutter speed goes down to 30s, while for the macro - it's 1/4s.
Poco X3 NFC camera app
Photo quality
Before we start talking about the photo quality, we want to make it clear that our unit has a lens issue on the primary camera that makes for a huge blurred spot around the bottom left part when focusing at infinity. We do think, and hope, this is a unit-specific problem and not a widespread thing.
With that said, the default 16MP photos from the main camera are excellent for this class. There is enough detail, high contrast, and commendable dynamic range (HDR was off). The colors are bit warmer than they should have been, but other than that - quite lively.
The noise reduction is gentle - it leaves some noise but also detail at areas of uniform colors such as walls or windows on residential buildings.
What could have been better - maybe toning the sharpening a notch down and dealing with the purple fringing around high-contrast areas. But for a €200 - we'd say the Poco X3 performs splendidly.
Main camera, 16MP
High-resolution 64MP mode is available - it requires a couple of seconds to save the high-res image, and each photo eats about 30MB. The images are okay, but they look like upscaled from 16MP for the most part, and we'd suggest staying away from the 64MP mode.
There is a case to be made for shooting in 64MP, though. Since there is no zoom camera, there is still a way to get a 2x photo of nicer quality. You can snap a photo in 64MP, then crop 16MP from the center and voila - you'd have a 2x zoomed 16MP image of much better quality than what you get by using the 2x switch.
Of course, you can do the same with the regular 16MP photo in the default mode - crop 8MP from the center and present it as an 8MP telephoto image. After all, many mid-range tele shooters are 8MP in resolution.
It is a hassle that will be just too much for many, and a gimmick that will not go unnoticed from the pixel peepers. But if you want to experiment, the 64MP mode is there for you.
Main camera, 64MP
And speaking of zoom, here are a few shots with the default 2x digital zoom. They are lacking in detail because of the upscaling back to 16MP. If you really need 2x optical-like zoom, just crop the center of a 64MP or a 16MP photo - it will be better than some of these.
Main camera 2x zoom, 16MP
There is a 2MP depth sensor on the back that is used only when shooting portraits. The Poco X3 NFC seems to be a capable portrait shooter with proficient subject separation and natural-looking blur. The portrait shots are also pretty detailed, and we do believe everyone will be happy with this mode on the Poco X3.
Main + depth camera, 16MP
The 13MP ultrawide photos are quite good for a mid-ranger. They are quite detailed, the colors are nice and there is a reasonably wide dynamic range. The lens distortion correction is not amazing and there is purple fringing in the corners, but that's alright for the segment.
Ultrawide camera, 13MP
The Poco X3's 2MP macro cam has a fixed focus at around 4cm, so it will be a hit-and-miss until you get used to it. The macro photos present enough detail and low noise but are not as contrasty as the rest of the bunch. Still, this 2MP will do for the occasional snap of a flower or bug.
Macro camera, 2MP
The low-light photos from the main camera are okay, but nothing extraordinary for the mid-range class. In fact, we've seen better. While there is enough detail and the pictures aren't terribly blurry, the noise reduction often smears a lot of the fine detail. The colors are warmer than they should be, the contrast isn't great either.
Main camera, 16MP
Overall, using Night mode is well recommended after dusk. It brightens the whole scene and restores the blown highlights. It has an even stronger noise reduction than the regular photos and it completely wipes out fine detail, but we still prefer those photos. The photos look great on the phone's screen and in low resolution on social media.
Main camera with Night Mode, 16MP
The 13MP ultrawide photos are poor in detail and the exposures are quite dark. We'd say they are mostly unusable past sunset. Unfortunately, this camera doesn't support Night mode.
Ultrawide camera, 13MP
Finally, let's look at some selfies. The 20MP samples from the front camera present enough detail, the colors are nice, and the contrast is excellent. While you have a limited range for the focus sweet spot, the Poco X3 offers enough leeway to cover the different arm lengths and those who prefer closeup shots
Selfie camera, 20 MP
Portrait selfies are available, but it seems the algorithm is struggling when presented with simple haircuts, so we can only imagine the mess that will become the more complex haircuts. We'd refrain using the selfie camera for portraits.
Selfie camera portraits, 20MP
Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Poco X3 NFC stacks up against other phones.
Poco X3 NFC against the Redmi Note 9 Pro and the Realme 6 in our Photo compare tool
Video quality
The Poco X3 NFC captures videos 4K@30fps videos with its primary and ultrawide cameras. The mainstream 1080p modes at both 30fps and 60fps are available for both, too. The macro camera is limited to 720p video capturing.
Let's talk about the main camera. The video bitrate is 40-42Mbps in 4K and about 20Mbps in 1080p at both 30fps and 60fps. Audio on in stereo with a 96Kbps bitrate.
The 4K clips are average in detail but the X3 handles the scene very well - the colors are accurate, the contrast is great and the dynamic range is enough for a pleasant and lively picture.
The main camera offers very good 2x digital zoom when shooting in 1080p@30fps and the quality is dependable.
The 4K videos from the ultrawide camera are pretty good, too. The resolved detail isn't spectacular, yes, but it is a lot, more than some far expensive phones offer. The colors are once again accurate and the picture has good contrast, though the dynamic range is limited.
Electronic stabilization is available for the primary and ultrawide cameras and it can be used at any resolution and frame rate.
Here's a glimpse of how the Poco X3 NFC compares to rivals in our Video compare tool.
2160p: Poco X3 NFC against the Redmi Note 9 Pro and the Realme 6 in our Video compare tool
Wrap-up
The Poco X3 NFC is a magnificent mid-ranger that's being sold on a bargain price. It has a large and high refresh rate screen, powerful and gaming-friendly hardware, a good camera package, a phenomenal battery, and lovely MIUI 12. What's not to like?
Well, it's not the perfect smartphone either - the speakers could have been tuned better, the nighttime photos need some improvement, and we aren't such fans of the slower pixel response time which cases smearing or ghosting when scrolling.
However, the attractive launch price positions the Poxo X3 quite favorably so we are more than willing to dismiss its shortcomings as non-essential.
Alternatives
The best bang for the buck was a niche that Xiaomi ruled for quite some time before Realme came up and challenged that. So unsurprisingly, Realme has some ideas on how to battle the Poco X3, too.
The Realme 7 is the first smartphone that comes to mind. It is a good match to the X3 with a large HRR screen, similarly powerful hardware, and an equally good main camera. The battery capacity and charging speeds are the same, too. The Realme 7 has a 90Hz screen and Realme UI, while the Poco has a 120Hz display and MIUI 12. So, it's up to you to decide which meets your needs best.
You are not without alternative choices in Xiaomi's camp either. The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite costs about €60 more than the Poco X3. It comes with a 60Hz AMOLED screen rather than a 120Hz IPS LCD. If the type of panel is more important than the high refresh rate, then the Mi Note 10 Lite may be the better choice for you. For us, it's a trade-off we're willing to accept. Other than that, the two phones offer similar gaming and camera experience, as well as equally long battery autonomy.
You can also trade the high refresh rate screen and massive battery for a 60Hz AMOLED and more powerful chipset with a 5G modem. We are talking about the €279 Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite and its Snapdragon 765G chip. If the tradeoff works for you, then by all means - go get this one.
Finally, we know we probably say this a lot, but if you can live without Google Services, then the super cheap Huawei P40 Lite may surprise you. It has one of the most powerful midrange platforms, an excellent rear camera, and similar battery life. The P40 Lite is more compact and lighter than the Poco X3 and costs nearly €50 less. How about that?
Realme 7 • Huawei P40 • Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G • Huawei P40 lite
The verdict
The Poco X3 NFC is an outstanding smartphone with a great specs sheet on a bargain price. It has the screen, power, camera, and battery to impress. There is no doubt it will sell well, and we see no reason why it shouldn't make it in your shopping shortlist.
If you are in the market for a new phone and the Poco X3 NFC fits your budget - we highly recommend getting it, or at least giving it some serious consideration.
Pros
- Large IPS LCD screen with small notch, great contrast, HDR10, 120Hz
- Unique design, IP53-certified for dust and splash resistance
- Chart-topping battery life, fast charging
- Among the fastest mid-rangers on the market
- Good photo and video quality
- MIUI 12 is feature-rich, smooth and stutter-free
- The fan-favorite 3.5mm jack, FM radio, IR blaster, microSD, and stereo speakers are all here
- Attractive launch price
Cons
- Not the best pixel response time leading to ghosting in 120Hz
- Unimpressive low-light camera quality
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